Maueioe vergnes



UNITED STATES PATENT OErroE.

MAURICE VERGNES, OF NEYV YORK, N. Y

PORTABLE PIANO-FORTE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,51 S, dated April 2G, 1364.

T0 .'LZZ whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, MAURICE VEnGnEs, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Portable Piano-Fortes; and l hereby declare that the following is a full and exact descriptionthereof.

To enable others skilled in the business to make and use my invention, I proceed to describe its construction and operation, reference being had to the drawings hereunto anl nexed, and making part of this specification.

Figure l is a transverse section. Fig. 2 is a diagram, enlarged, of the key and hammer, with apparatus. i

The same letters refer to the same things in all the drafts.

A are the keys; B, the hammer, and G the spring upon which the hammer is hung. D is the cushion, forming the bed of the spring C, and serving to dampen its vibration. E is an elastic strap upon the end of the key, holding it firm against the cushion at 0. F is a cushion receiving the force of the blow struck upon the key, and near the pivot at G, to obviate the necessity of a cushion directly underi the key. G is the bridge or chevron, upon the back of which the key is pivoted, and H the sounding-board or harmonic table; O, the cushion which receives the recoil of the key when struck; P, abar extending the length of the instrument, and connected by some half dozen stanchions tothe soundingboard. The elastic straps E at the inner ends of the keys are all fastened to the bar l?. Q is a girder ruiming the length of the instrument at top fR, a guide-pin by which the key is prevented vibrating horizontally; S, the damper. Y

The purpose of this invention is to make aI clavichord that canbe borne about by hand, and yet produce the effect of a piano-forte. To this end, andgasanimprovement, its action must be essentially different from that ot' ordinary clavichord instruments. The keys A (in this design) are about nine inches long, and pivoted at an inch and three-quarters from the heel. No cushion is placed under the key at its outer end. The heel strikes a cushion, F, when the leverage is so short and the motion so little that no sound is made by the concussion, and this regulates the possible amount of depression of the key. At the heel of the key is an elastic strap, E, holding to the bar P, which is connected rmly with the sounding-board. This strap restores the key promptly to its place, however quick the stroke in repetition, and in the return the y key strikes a cushion, O, with short leverage and little motion, and makes no sound by the concussion. The hammer is placed directly under the key. It is set firmly attached to a strip or plate spring, U. In this design it is set back an inch and a quarter from the outer end of the key. The hammer is constructed as usual, but it is attached firmly to a stripspring, C, or a spring of an y form,) lying under l and parallel to the key. rIhis spring is secured rmly to the key, and reaches back some five or six inches. Between the stripspring and the under side of the key is a soft pail or elastic cushion, or bed, made of cotton or any suitable material. rllhe spring lies close to this, and is held there with some little firmness by the tension of the spring. To

l strike the string, (which is placed about an eighth of an inch below where the hammer would reach it" it were pressed gently down,) the key must be touched with sufficient impulse to throw down the hammer beyond its normal place, as shown in Fig. 2. The stroke upon the key is limited by the heel touching the cushion at F, but the hammer, being upon a strip-spring, cyntinues from momentnin its motion down, and strikes the string with a force commensurate with the weight of the hammer, strength of thc spring, and force of the blow. It recoils from the string and falls hack upon the soft pad D, and does not rebound from it nor make any sound, but is ready to act again in the repetition as fast as the power of the spring can effect. In

this design the string is clearly struck as often as the hand can produce the repetition of the stroke upon the key. The soundingboard is placed beneath, as usual. The suspending-bridge G is supported under the guides Q by some half dozen rods, and it sustains the Whole pressure made by the hand i by the stroke of a hammer thrown by its moin playing. mentum, in the nia-nner described.

This instrument is equally adapted. for all 2. Attaching the damper lirxnly to the key, sonorons b0dies,sneh as strings,bells,tongnes, i in the manner described. &e. rlhe impact of the hammer is the same7 and the dampening the same.

WhaitI claim as my invention, and desire 1 Vitnesses: to secure by Letters Patent, is OWEN G. WARREN, l. Producing the tone of a sonorous body J. D. STURTEVANT.

M. VERGNES. 

